Changes
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: Penny thinks about everything that has changed in her life...and the constants that get her through them.  Slightly L/P shippy, but more general than anything. No spoilers for any specific episode.


**I did so much friggin' homework today, I had to tap something out on Word to unwind. That class is so much fun, but there's so much work! What I'd intended to be a one hundred word drabble turned into this. Hope you like it!**

**DISCLAIMER: I own diddly squat.**

Penny's life had been full of changes, especially since she came to California as a teenager. She'd broken up with Kurt; she'd moved away from him, and she never did get her television. She'd gone through three televisions in four years, two of which were before she realized that it wasn't that the television was broken; it was that the cable bill was unpaid.

She still worked at the same place as she did when she first came to California, but wages had shifted, and hours had changed. She'd worked the bar and the restaurant; she'd worked mornings and evenings, and her days off varied from Monday to Friday.

She rolled over onto her side, still thinking too much to be able to sleep. The televisions had been many, yes, wastes of money and time. But they weren't the only dumb mistakes she'd made. There were the relationships, the hook ups whose numbers were closer to Sheldon's calculated guess than she wanted to admit, and the actual boyfriends, who were mostly jerks. She'd never been very good at making decisions when it came to men. Not for the most part, anyway.

Despite living in the same apartment for the past few years, and holding down the same jobs, when little things would change in her routine she felt thrown off; then she felt that she'd spent way too much time with Sheldon if little changes were affecting her that much. Then she'd retreat, drink a little more than she should, and maybe look for another guy, simply because she was lonely.

She wasn't a scientist, but she knew that within all the changes that had happened to her since she'd moved into 4B, there were constants, too. The guys, the guys who had befriended her, who she realized over time had been extra kind to her even though at first she considered herself being the one who was going out of her way to be nice. But something about them, even from the start, had drawn her nearer to them like a magnetic pull, as if she knew even on the day she moved in, when she still judged people like that and used the word "nerd" as a derogatory, that somehow, these were who she was supposed to be friends with.

There was Raj, the quiet one who was always there to offer her a smile when she needed it, or who found ways to communicate with her without words. Raj had gone from being one of the weirdest, messed up people Penny thought she'd ever meet to one of the sweetest; and though she assumed that he was far from innocent when he sat there quietly watching the conversation around him he sure seemed that way.

Then there was Howard, who had repulsed her; their first meeting she was fairly meek around him, being a "regular" girl in a room full of strange strangers, and the rest of the day she felt outnumbered, but not so much uncomfortable, around the guys. Once Howard's personality became more apparent, he disgusted and even repulsed Penny at times, but after the incident with M.O.N.T.E. he showed a sensitive personality hiding under his creepy candy coating, and after that, her witnessing him in a low moment, they began to form a friendship based on some level of respect.

Of course, the way she felt about Raj and Howard in no way compared to Sheldon. She hadn't realized _just_ how odd he was at their first meeting, but it had become apparent soon enough. But something about the way his mind worked fascinated her, simply because it was so different from her own. After they'd spent time together through the free will of neither of them, they began to learn to get along, and after she'd helped him when he was sick and he did the same for her when she was hurt, it became undeniable that they were friends. It was even a little more than that; Penny wasn't even surprised anymore when she felt a sisterly, or even matronly, need to look out for Sheldon or explain things to him.

And her connection to Sheldon was nonexistent compared to that of Leonard, and the more Penny thought about it, the more she realized he was her constant of constants. Always there, always ready and willing to help her, and always asking her to stay over for coffee or offering to pay for her food. He was the one who, even when they weren't dating, was willing to hold her when she was upset. And when they were dating, he was her life, although she never quite put that into those exact words. She realized now that maybe she did have a good taste in guys, as he was the only one who had that sort of hold on her from the day that they met. He was the one who she always ended up hanging out with, always ended up kissing, always the one that she replayed her conversations with in her head, worrying every time if she'd said something wrong. He was the one that she was starting to believe she belonged with. Things between them weren't perfect right now, but they still…_were_. And she knew that they always would be.

She glanced at the clock. It was nearly midnight, and she had an early shift tomorrow. A new shift. Yet another change.

But if the quality of her constants, and not the quantity, was truly what mattered, then the number of changes in her life were irrelevant. She had the four best constants that any still-a-little-scared, young country girl in the big city could ever hope for.

**Yeah…I know this probably looks like it was written in five minutes. Well, it was! Let me know what you thought.**


End file.
